i utterly rely on chs so any advice is appreciated, even if it's "sorry cant help try program $X"

When I have a mission, it consumes me; I will not be satisfied until the job is done. I have a strong sense of duty, and a strong sense of direction. Changes in the tide don't phase me - I always know which way the wind blows, and I know how to compensate for it. I get on poorly with people like myself.

ok first thing is exit CHS, make sure it's not running, backup your CHS database folder (will be in the program folder on xp or portable, or in documents\CHS on winvista or laste), so you preserve everything as it is now.once that's done, restart chs, go to options -> Backup/Maintenance tab and choose Veritfy, Repair, Optimize Database.see if that helps.if not, tell me again the kind of error you are getting.

CHS also makes backups, you could choose Restore Database Backup from that tab.

But tell me the error in more detail because i can't tell if maye the problem is with the formatting presets.. which are stored in files not the database.. perhaps one of those files got corrupted and is confusing the program? if so you might try exiting, backing up the presets folder and then deleting its contents and restarts.

Perhaps before any of that a smart thing would be make sure you arent out of disk space, and reboot the pc. Never hurts to check those things first.

ok i got called out of town for work,soon as i get back home i'll see if that solves things

danke mouser

When I have a mission, it consumes me; I will not be satisfied until the job is done. I have a strong sense of duty, and a strong sense of direction. Changes in the tide don't phase me - I always know which way the wind blows, and I know how to compensate for it. I get on poorly with people like myself.